profit. Also, your investment needs to bring in enough money to pay for both regular maintenance and any expenses that come up, without you having to add cash. The major benefit of using an SDIRA for your real estate investments comes down to taxes. With a traditional IRA, it’s tax- deferred income, but with a Roth IRA, your gains are tax-free, and the money will also be tax-free (if you follow all IRS rules) when you ultimately withdraw it. If you go this route, you can move funds around from multiple projects without affecting your taxes. (Keep in mind that tax and other financial laws can change at any time, so make sure you keep on top of any changes, and make any adjustments, as needed, guided by your tax professional.) One tax downside is that if your property has a net loss, you don’t get the tax breaks other investors get. You also can’t claim depreciation. Another advantage of real estate over traditional retirement accounts is the return. Real estate can net you perhaps an 18-20% return over 30 years, whereas the more common accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, etc., might only get you 3-6%. Don't forget to account for annual inflation, which drags down any returns. Not only that, but you can use compounding to your advantage...returns upon returns. If you keep investing your money for the first 20 years, you can leave it for the last 10 and just let it grow. Doesn’t doing almost nothing while still making plenty of money sound great? As with any investment, there are risks to using an SDIRA. You might make a bad decision or get scammed, which is so common the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has an investor alert about the scamming risk for SD-IRAs.
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